2012

By Bob Lewis | June 25, 2012
Topics: ManagementSpeak | No Comments »

ManagementSpeak: You’ve got a bright future at this organization.

Translation: Assuming, of course, that by “great future” you mean every day will be exactly like today.

This week’s contributor has a great future as a translator.

What makes work easy

By Bob Lewis | June 25, 2012
Topics: Business Ethics, Industry Commentary, Leadership | 11 Comments »

Just about every job is easy, right up until it’s your job. Then it’s hard, and deeply complicated. How can people avoid falling into this trap? Maybe if they had time for a hobby, they’d be able to keep a better perspective.

ManagementSpeak, 6/18/2012

By Bob Lewis | June 18, 2012
Topics: ManagementSpeak | No Comments »

ManagementSpeak: We understand that this has not been as successful a transition as we planned.

Translation: What do you want? We fired a guy and redesigned the org chart, but I guess we shouldn’t be surprised. Everyone knows, employees just naturally resist change.

Long-time reader “L.T.” appreciates a manager’s ability to keep “on message” when total chaos would be an improvement.

When providing technology leadership, don’t push it

By Bob Lewis | June 18, 2012
Topics: Career Management, Industry Commentary, Leadership, Organizational Effectiveness, Strategy and Tactics, Technology | 4 Comments »

One of IT’s critical roles is to provide technology leadership to the business. That takes more than just vision. It takes more than knowing the current hot industry trends. It takes understanding your company, its idiosyncrasies, and its place in the world.

Great Quotation, 6/11/2012

By Bob Lewis | June 11, 2012
Topics: ManagementSpeak | No Comments »

“Vegetarian – an old Indian word meaning ‘lousy hunter.’”

- Andy Rooney

What to do about tribalism

By Bob Lewis | June 11, 2012
Topics: Business Ethics, Leadership, Office Politics, Organizational Effectiveness | 1 Comment »

Humans are tribal. You can’t change that about yourself. You can consciously decide which tribes you belong to, though, and that’s almost as good.

ManagementSpeak, 6/4/2012

By Bob Lewis | June 4, 2012
Topics: ManagementSpeak | No Comments »

ManagementSpeak: There are exceptional IT professionals pounding the pavement right now, waiting to be found.

Translation: And a lot of companies won’t hire them because they have some gray hair.

I don’t know why they’re complaining, though. At least they have hair.

Recruiting enters the sixth dimension

By Bob Lewis | June 4, 2012
Topics: Career Management, Industry Commentary, Leadership, Organizational Effectiveness, Policies and Procedures, Process Management and Improvement | 1 Comment »

One reason recruiting is such a mess is that internal recruiting has made bad assumptions about what matters. If it understood the six dimensions of optimization, it could fix this.

ManagementSpeak, 5/28/2012

By Bob Lewis | May 28, 2012
Topics: ManagementSpeak | Comments Off

ManagementSpeak: We need to bring in some consultants.

Translation: Aaaarrrghhh! I waited until it’s too late and now I want to bring in someone else to either save me or to take the blame for accepting a helplessly doomed project.

The project wasn’t a total loss, though — it did give us this phrase and translation.

Unsurprising Cloud surprises

By Bob Lewis | May 28, 2012
Topics: Cloud, Industry Commentary | 2 Comments »

Turns out, cloud computing costs more and takes longer than traditional computing. We saw all of this before when client/server computing was new, which means this shouldn’t surprise you, and isn’t necessarily how the long run will turn out, either.